On
Sunday,
March
30,
Massachusetts men’s basketball
coach Derek Kellogg received a
phone call from sophomore shooting guard Derrick Gordon.
On the other end was a trembling Gordon, who had a big
secret to let out: he was gay.
“He called me late Sunday
night and said he had met with
his parents,” Kellogg said. “And
he sounded kind of nervous. He
was stumbling on the phone some
and I said, ‘listen, just tell me
what’s going on. You can tell me
anything, you don’t have to beat
around the bush,’ and he came
out and said ‘I’m gay, coach.’”
Three days later, on April 2,
Kellogg called a team meeting
for Gordon to address the rest of
the team. The result was Kellogg
showing his support for Gordon
by breaking the ice to his team.
“I said, ‘I want to make an
important announcement to you
guys. Just want to let you know
that I’m gay,’” Kellogg said. “(The
team) knows me, they’ve been to
my house, hung out with my wife
and my son and thought it was
kind of funny … he kind of broke
the ice and (Gordon) said, ‘you
know coach ain’t (gay), but I am.’”
With
the
announcement,
Gordon becomes the first openly
gay athlete in men’s Division I
basketball, coming out just two
months after former Missouri
football player Michael Sam came
out as gay months before the NFL
Draft.
Gordon
sat
down
with
Outsports’ Cyd Zeigler and
ESPN’s Kate Fagan to tell his
story, which both became public
on Wednesday morning. Gordon
said he felt like he was hiding
something and that “he didn’t
want to hide it anymore,” in the
interview with Fagan.
With immense support from
fellow gay athlete Jason Collins –
who became the first openly gay
athlete to play in the NBA when
he signed with the Brooklyn Nets
in February – and Wade Davis,
Gordon finally worked up the

courage to tell his family.
Gordon said his brother
Darryl, who is currently serving
four years in jail for shooting a
man in the chest, took the news
the hardest. The brothers have
a very strong bond and Gordon,
who’s always been open about
doing everything in life for his
brother, told him that it wasn’t his
fault and it could’ve just as easily
been him.
“I had to have a good, long talk
with him to let him know that it
wasn’t his fault,” Gordon said.
“This is who I am and I told him
too, it’s not like I woke up one day
and said ‘OK, I’m gay.’ You can’t
do that. Just support me for who I
am and he got it. It took him longer than my father did.
“Well you tell people these
types of things, you can’t just
expect them to know right away
and know right away.”
Despite the fact that it took his
family some time to understand
the news that Gordon revealed to
them, his teammates all supported him. In fact, they knew something was bothering him throughout the season because Gordon
tended to go off on his own and,
at times, didn’t seem part of the
team.
“This past year, he got a lot
more isolated,” sophomore Tyler
Bergantino said. “You could tell
that there was something bothering him. Wasn’t really quite like
himself like how I saw him the
year before. You could tell there
was like a fog about him.”
But Gordon is in the right place
to come out. Massachusetts is
widely considered one of the most
liberal and progressive states in
the country, with UMass living
up to that billing. There is a huge
LGBT support system on campus,
which can make it easier for a
person like Gordon, who is constantly in the public eye, to come
out and know that he has a strong
support group.
“In a lot of schools, even if it’s
a really progressive school, sometimes the athletic department is
not so progressive,” Pat Griffin
said, who focuses on LGBT issues

MARIA UMINSKI/COLLEGIAN

Derrick Gordon talks with the media about the relief he felt after coming out as gay.
in sports and is a UMass professor
emeritus. “That’s the anomaly in
the college campus. I don’t think
that’s the case here, as evidenced
by the great supportive response
that he’s getting from the athletic
department.”
It’s been hard for Gordon to
pick the exact time to come out as

gay. He was nearly outed last summer when a photo of him standing
outside a gay bar with his thenboyfriend surfaced. Members of
the Minutemen caught sight of
it and began harassing him and
questioning his sexuality.
see

GORDON on page 3

Those
that
watched
Massachusetts men’s basketball
guard Derrick Gordon play basketball this season saw a highintensity player capable of playing
ferocious defense.
By season’s end, Gordon had
crashed to the floor beneath the
basket after finishing a layup too
many times to count. He didn’t
quit on plays, even taking it so far
that he dove over a sideline media
table and cascaded into media
members covering UMass’ home
opener against Louisiana State.
On Wednesday, Gordon yet
again crashed through a barrier,
a barrier much more meaningful than wins or losses. Sporting
a black T-shirt with the hashtag
#BETRUE scrawled across the
chest, Gordon publicly announced
he’s gay, becoming the first male
Division I basketball player to
openly come out.
“Nobody in this world should
be living their life in shame being
who they really are,” he said.
Gordon said his announcement comes at a time where he’s
comfortable and confident with
himself, after wrestling with this
internal emotion for the better
part of the past four years. One of
the biggest challenges he fretted
over was delivering the news to his
teammates.
“I thought about it all the time
like, ‘man I don’t know if I could
tell my teammates this,” Gordon
said.
The
team
gathered
last
Wednesday with UMass coach
Derek Kellogg leading the meeting
while Gordon sat off to the side.
Gordon’s initial plan was to deliver the news himself, but Kellogg
instead eased the situation and
announced to the team that he was
gay.
The team looked on, confused
about the news delivered from a
man with a wife and children like
Kellogg.
“(Gordon) was really nervous,
more of how the guys were going
to react or if there was going to be
any blowback to a certain extent,”
see

REACTIONS on page 2

Bone marrow drive this weekend Stockbridge program
Organization to have
preps future farmers
tents outside dining halls
By JoSh Darling
Collegian Correspondent
Close to 100 University of
Massachusetts students will be
volunteering in a bone marrow
registration drive this Friday and
Saturday from 9-5 p.m. that will
take place in tents outside of each
of the Dining Commons.
The volunteers will be working with Delete Blood Cancer, an
organization founded by Peter Harf
in 1990. Originally based out of
Germany, the organization began
to spread campaigns throughout
the U.S. starting in 2004, under
the leadership of Peter’s daughter
Katharina.
The organization is tasked with
building a comprehensive registry
of potential bone marrow donors.
Because the odds of finding an
exact match can vary from 1 in
20,000 to 1 in millions, the need for

potential donors is ever-pressing.
New potential donors will be
administered a cotton swabbing of
the inner cheek, in order to test
for genetic matches. Delete Blood
Cancer urges potential donors to
think carefully about the decision
to register. Due to the extreme
difficulty of finding a match, it is
extremely devastating to the patient
if a potential donor backs out at the
last second.
“Since Delete Blood Cancer came
to UMass four years ago, we’ve registered about 6,000 new potential
donors, which is really great,” said
Brendan Nolan, a senior who has
been volunteering for this drive
since his freshman year. “We’re the
number one school in the country
when it comes to registration numbers.”
The donation process for giving bone marrow takes two forms:
Peripheral Blood Stem Cell (PBSC)
donation and traditional bone marrow donation.
PBSC involves taking a small
amount of blood from donors and

running it through a machine
that isolates the blood stem cells.
In order to increase the level of
stem cells in the blood, donors are
required to ingest a protein called
filgrastim for four days leading up
to the extraction.
The second method, bone marrow donation, is an outpatient surgical procedure in which marrow is
collected from the backside of the
pelvic bone using a syringe. The
donor is given general anesthesia
prior to the operation, so no pain is
felt during the procedure.
Both forms of donation do
involve some discomfort while
recovering from the procedure, but
as Nolan succinctly stated, it’s a
“small price to pay for saving a life.”
The Pike fraternity deserves
special mention in regards to this
event, as they have rallied around
60 volunteers who will run the
registration progress at Berkshire
Dining Commons.
Josh Darling can be reached at jmdarling@
umass.edu.

Special topics fair held
to show student projects
By katrina BorofSki
Collegian Staff

As the spring semester comes to
a close, most classes begin to wind
down and prepare for finals. For
students enrolled in the Stockbridge
School of Agriculture’s Farm
Enterprise Practicum course, however, this is far from the case.
With a 1 to 6 credit course in
which students plan the farming
process for a 6 acre organic farm
located in South Deerfield, the students enrolled in Farm Enterprise
Practicum are just beginning the
implementation of their work.
During the spring semester
course, students partake in the planning process for the farm work that
will take place over the summer.
Following the summer, students

enroll in Stockbridge 498E, the second half of the Farm Enterprise
Practicum.
“About half of the class stays in
the summer to work on the farm,”
said Amanda Brown, the instructor
of the Farm Enterprise Practicum.
“Not only are students planning
for the crops; they also each take on
an area of interest and they create
a research project about how they
can implement this on the farm,”
explained Jason Silverman, assistant manager of the University of
Massachusetts Student Farm.
Among the 12 students enrolled
in the course, projects covered topics such as seed saving, record keeping and farm planning, organic disease management, animal rotation,
flea beetle management and draft
horse husbandry.
Chris Raabe, a student enrolled
see

FARMING on page 2

2

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

Thursday, April 10, 2014

DailyCollegian.com

REACTIONS
Kellogg said. “I think it
was a good way to break
the ice and I think when
I said it, they knew why
(Gordon) was there.”
For Gordon, the reaction he received was surprising.
“They all knew, all of
them,” Gordon said. “Even
the ones I thought didn’t
have a clue. … I’m still
trying to let that sink in
because I don’t believe
that, but they said they
did.”
Gordon
noted
his
teammates first started
to notice differences last
summer, when only the
players were on campus
for summer workouts. The
prospect of going through
another summer filled
with secrecy and deception
would’ve been too difficult.
“When you’re around
your
teammates
and
they’re always talking
about girls and you don’t
have any input, I had to
deal with that all four
years,” Gordon said.
“I think that’s when (my
teammates) finally started
realizing because every
time they talked about it,
I didn’t say anything, I just
sat there,” Gordan added.
“Just finally being able to
come out now and be who
I want and my teammates
accepting me for who I am
… I couldn’t ask for better
teammates.”
One of Gordon’s closest
friends on the team is center Tyler Bergantino. The
two roomed together last
year and have remained
close friends. And while
Bergantino was surprised
by the announcement,
he said the support was
immediate.
“Everybody had full
support,” he said. “There
was (initially) an uneasiness about everything,
but what was the biggest
emotion was support for
(Gordon) because at the
end of the day he’s a team-

What are you doing
this summer?
Explore over 100 online courses,
hybrid classes (online and on-campus)
and day/evening on-campus classes.
Session 1 classes begin May 19.

mate and a brother.”
Ke l l o g g
e ch o e d
Bergantino’s sentiments.
“To a man, they all took
Derrick on as a family
member a long time ago,”
he said. “And we just reiterated that when he told
them he was a gay man.
Once Gordon crossed
the initial barrier with
his teammates, it was
time to turn his attention
publicly. As the news was
announced around campus, many students and
fans took to social media
to express their support of
the sophomore guard.
“I was happy for
him, especially because
I watched the whole
(announcement) video and
he seemed happy,” Mike
Stone, a senior, said. “He
was telling how different
it was from before when
he was not sitting with his
team and trying to hide
himself and now he’s out
and thrilled.”
Added fellow senior
Zack Hathaway: “It was
really nice to see and it was
nice to see UMass in that
spotlight for a very good
reason. It was very uplifting and a huge weight off
his shoulders.”
As
Gordon
openly
chatted to reporters on
Wednesday, one thing
remained constant: his
smile. He flashed it regularly and seemed comfortably at ease.
“I’m happy right now,”
Gordon said.
“My teammates, they
don’t care what my preference is,” he added. “They
knew who I am and nothing is gonna change, I’m
still gonna be the same DG
from when I first got here.
It’s going to make us much
closer I think.”
Mark Chiarelli can be reached at
mchiarel@umass.edu and followed
on Twitter @Mark_Chiarelli.

continued from page 1

in the Farm Enterprise
Practicum, completed his
project on the use of biodiesel. After completing
research on biodiesel use
at Kansas State University,
Raabe was inspired to complete further work on the
topic at UMass.
Raabe proposed an implementation plan that would
convert cooking oil from
the dining halls to biodiesel
that could be used for tractors on the University farms
and other resource-fueling
needs across campus, such
as the Physical Plant.
“It’s a compelling project
with a lot of hoops you have
to jump through,” Raabe
explained of his implementation plan. “I’m hoping to
build a task force working
with different departments
in order to get this project
going.”
On Wednesday, students
in the Farm Enterprise
Practicum course showcased the projects they had
completed and their plans
for implementation at the
Special Topics Fair, which
took place in room 165 in the
Campus Center basement.
“This is great because it
is sort of like a big kickoff and allows students to
talk to the farmers,” Brown
explained.
In the fall, the students
will work on marketing
the crops that are being
produced during the summer. In addition, students
will share their research
on their special topics and
implementation in a student
handbook that is published
each year and given to the
next semester’s students to
serve as guidance.
“They sort of write their
own textbook,” Brown said.
“This is our third year doing
this.”
Brown hopes to see a

large collection of these
handbooks for students
to use as resources in the
future.
The crops produced
over the summer are sold
through
the
Campus
Supported Agriculture program, where students at the
University can pay ahead
and receive weekly shares
of produce from the Student
Farm.
In addition to the farm
located in South Deerfield,
students will also be working at the Agricultural
Learning Center in North
Amherst this summer,
located just off of the UMass
campus.
“Hopefully, this will
increase visibility to other
students,” said James
Silverman, who graduated
with a degree in Sustainable
Food and Farming from the
University and continues
to work with the program
today.
Members of the UMass
Student Farm recognize the
benefits of working with this
program. Most specifically,
Brown noted the business
experience and knowledge
that students gain from taking these two courses and
participating on the farm.
“Each year’s success
keeps it going,” Brown
explained. “Half the money
we make goes towards supplies and production, while
half goes towards labor
costs. It’s sort of like a nonprofit organization.”
“Everything that we do is
applicable to real life,” she
said.
“This really was the capstone of my education,”
added Silverman, who hopes
to see a larger awareness of
student farming on campus.
Katrina Borofski can be reached at
kborofski@umass.edu.

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

DailyCollegian.com

GORDON

continued from page 1

Gordon denied those
accusations at first, always
saying that he was straight.
But he was lying to himself. He was pretending to
be something that he truly
wasn’t.
Still, Gordon went out
and continued to play the
sport he grew up loving and
at an extremely high level.
He was a major contributor
to getting UMass back to the
NCAA Tournament, all the
while keeping this secret in
the back of his mind.
The idea for him to wait to
reveal this news to his team
until after the season ended
“says a great deal about the
young man,” according to
UMass Athletic Director
John McCutcheon.
“That he didn’t just think
about himself. He thought
about his teammates. He
thought about the coaches.
He thought about the program in conjunction and
really thought through the
timing of when would be
the right time to do this and
knowing that he has to do
what’s in his best interest,
as well,” he said.
With this announcement, Gordon will forever
be linked to the likes of
Collins and Sam. He’ll be
a role model for not just
gay athletes, but for the gay
community as a whole, as
someone who did what he
knew was right.
“It’s a scary situation,”

“He didn’t just think about himself. He
thought about his teammates. He thought
about the coaches. He thought about the
program in conjunction and really thought
through the timing of when would be the
right time to do this and knowing that he has
to do what’s in his best interest, as well.”
John McCutcheon, UMass athletic director
he said. “Just to have to
tell your parents and everything and shaking. I’ve
never shaken like that in
my life and just to be shaking the way I did, I came to
realize that it’s not an easy
topic to discuss, so to be in
the mix with (Collins and
Sam), hopefully it’s not just
us three. I’m sure there’s
going to be a lot more people, it’s just a matter of
time.”
It is just a matter of time
for the next gay athlete to
come out and it’s also a matter of time until this type of
announcement is seen as
normal.
“That’s going to take
time,” Gordon said. “In certain places in our society,
it’s just not acceptable. It
shouldn’t matter at the end
of the day.”
The process hasn’t been
easy for Gordon and there
will only be more hurdles to
jump over, not just for him,
but for the entire UMass

team. Bergantino, who
was Gordon’s roommate, is
fearful for what’s going to
be said by “keyboard warriors,” who will hide behind
their computer screens and
criticize him for being who
he is.
And then there are the
road games next season
that will surely bring out
remarks about his sexuality.
But for Gordon, he’s
not worried about those
moments. He’ll deal with
them when they happen. As
for right now, it feels like
the weight of the world has
been lifted off his shoulders.
“I couldn’t be more happier in my 22 years of living,” he said. “Just hiding
something that I’ve been
hiding for the longest time,
it’s like I’m taking my mask
off.”
Patrick Strohecker can be reached at
pstrohec@umass.edu and followed
on Twitter @P_Strohecker.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Department reflects on
highly influential group
Conference events
will discuss history
By Josh Darling
Collegian Staff

The
University
of
Massachusetts
Social
Thought
and
Political
Economy department will
be hosting a conference from
April 11 to April 13 discussing the history and impact
of the defunct Science for
the People organization.
Science for the People
was a radical coalition of
scientists, activists, mathematicians and members
of other facets of academia
that was in action from 1969
to 1989. Started as a result
of the anti-war response to
the Vietnam War, the organization used Marxist analysis of power structures to
combat the adverse use of
science for the sole benefit
of those in power.
Some issues that Science
for the People tackled
include the “militarization of scientific research,
the corporate control of
research agendas, the political implications of sociobiology and other scientific
theories, the environmental consequences of energy policy, inequalities in
health care, and many other
issues,” according to the
conference website.
The organization advocated for the reallocation
of scientific resources for
causes that would benefit
the world as a whole. One
instance of the organization’s radical activism is

their disruption of a 1971
meeting of the American
Association
for
the
Advancement of Science,
“the world’s largest general
scientific society.” Members
of Science for the People
occupied the meeting and
threw paper airplanes at former Vice President Hubert
Humphrey in protest of the
Vietnam War. By the end
of the meeting, Humphrey
signed a pledge to pull out
of Vietnam.
“There are a number of
key issues that need to be
addressed with the kind
of radical approach that
Science for the People demonstrated,” STPEC Director
Sigrid Schmalzer said. “We
hope for this conference to
be a learning experience,
but also a kick-off point for
people to organize in a way
that best addresses these
issues, using Science for the
People as inspiration.”
There are currently over
150 people preregistered for
attendance, and over 60 presenters scheduled to speak
at the conference.
The first night of the conference will include a reception and dinner, followed
by a two-hour segment during which UMass students
will interview six former
members of Science for the
People about their experiences with the organization
and beyond.
Saturday will start with
several speakers presenting
on the history and impact
of Science for the People,
followed by panels throughout the day discussing the
teaching of social justice

in science, agricultural
science and food justice,
injustice involving laborers
working with toxic chemicals and other topics.
The day’s lectures will
be concluded with a keynote lecture by John
Vandermeer, an ASA Gray
Distinguished University
Professor of Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology of
University of Michigan
and founding member of
Science for the People. He is
one of the foremost authorities on matters of agricultural sustainability.
Following the keynote
lecture will be dinner and
subsequent
entertainment. The entertainment
will include music by Sara
Colb and the Sagamore
James Band, spoken word
by Walnut da Lyrical Geni,
Papel Machete and “puppetry with a message,” a
project of AgitArte.
The final day of the conference will include presentations on climate change,
energy technology and
policy, women in science
and “pro- and anti-people”
healthcare models.
The last presentation
of the conference will be a
“forum where all concerned
scientists – and especially
students and younger members of the profession – may
explore the questions, Why
are we scientists? For whose
benefit do we work? What
is the full measure of our
moral and social responsibility?”
Josh Darling can be reached at
jmdarling@umass.edu.

YOUR SUMMER WELL SPENT
JOIN UMASS BOSTON THIS SUMMER FOR AN EXPERIENCE LIKE NO OTHER.

REGIONAL
ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIGS

summer.umb.edu/mysummer

Participate in a real excavation
for signs of early settlers and
First Nation people.

NANTUCKET ISLAND
Live and learn on Nantucket! Choose
from 100- to 500-level courses in
art, science and the humanities.

Knife attack at Pennsylvania
high school wounds 21 students
By Jonathan Silver
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
MURRYSVILLE, Pa. —
They prepared for guns but
faced knives instead.
In the era of Newtown
and Virginia Tech and
Columbine, danger and
bloodshed came Wednesday
to Franklin Regional Senior
High School not at the end
of a barrel but rather at
the points of two flashing
blades.
Just after dawn, police
said, sophomore Alex Hribal
rampaged through a wing of
the Murrysville school in a
scene straight from a horror
movie, slashing and stabbing 21 students and a security guard with two 8-inch
steel knives in a swift and
apparently random attack
that ended only when an
administrator tackled him.
Two students were treated
for other issues.
Within five minutes, a
high school hallway was
transformed into a bloody
crime scene; sleepy students waiting for first period suddenly became victims
of violence; and a slender,
dark-haired
16-year-old
described as quiet and studious, and looking younger
than his years, emerged as
the latest face of the national epidemic of school violence.
“When I saw a kid bleeding on the ground is when I
realized this was really serious,” student Hope Demont
said. “It was absolutely
mind-blowing.”
Four of
her peers
remained in critical condition Wednesday evening,
and Westmoreland County
District Attorney John Peck
said the incident could yet
turn fatal.
“There is a question
about whether that person
will survive,” Peck said during the suspect’s evening
arraignment before District
Judge Charles Conway.
The teen, clad in a blue
ho spital gown after being
treated for minor hand
wounds, was charged as
an adult with four counts
of attempted homicide,
21 counts of aggravated
assault and one count of
possessing a prohibited
weapon on school property.
He was denied bail.
Peck told the court that
the suspect made some
statements after school officials tackled him that indicated he wanted to die.
Defense attorney Patrick
Thomassey described his
client as a good student with
no prior criminal record
and no history of addiction
to drugs or alcohol. He said
his client is not a loner and
interacts well with other
students.
Thomassey described the

incident as “bizarre” and
asked for a mental evaluation to determine whether
his client will be competent
for an April 30 preliminary
hearing.
“My prayers go out to
everyone who was injured
today and I hope they recover as quickly as possible,”
the suspect’s father, Harold
Hribal, told WTAE-TV outside the family’s home.
Despite several hours of
interviewing the suspect,
Murrysville Police Chief
Thomas Seefeld said investigators had not uncovered
a motive.
“We don’t know what led
up to this,” Chief Seefeld
said. “We’re praying and
hoping the best for all the
victims,” he said.
Demont said she heard
rumors that the suspect
called an upperclassman
earlier this week from a
restricted number saying,
“I’m going to (expletive) you
up.”
Asked about that phone
call at the press briefing,
Seefeld said: “We’re checking it out.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom
Corbett, appearing at an
afternoon news conference
after clearing his schedule
and driving to Murrysville
from the Capitol, asked
the question on everyone’s
minds: “What made him
decide to get up today and
do this?”
News of the attack
attracted national attention and lit up social media
as condolences flooded
through cyberspace and at
least two stabbing victims
posted on Twitter pictures
of themselves at trauma
centers sporting bandages
and wearing hospital gowns.
The incident also drew
in federal law enforcement. The FBI was at the
suspect’s two-story sidingand-brick house on a cul de
sac, executing search warrants, seizing computers
and interviewing witnesses.
And U.S. Attorney David
Hickton appeared at a news
conference and pledged his
help. He noted one thing
that was not seized: the suspect’s cellphone; he said the
teen did not have one.
Wednesday began in
typical fashion as the high
school’s 1,222 students
entered the building just
after sunrise. But by 7:13
a.m., when police were first
alerted to the chaos churning inside the school, terrified students would be fleeing for their lives.
It was one of the most
vulnerable possible times
for chaos.
“Once the students are in
the building and in classes
we can go into lockdown,”
school director Roberta
Cook said. “But before

school starts it’s hard to
completely secure the building.”
Gracey Evans, a junior
from Murrysville, said she
arrived around 6:50 a.m.
About 20 minutes later, as
she stood in a hallway while
her best friend stopped at
his locker, she heard someone say something about
blood.
“I saw this kid in all black
running down the hallway,
stabbing,” said Evans. “He
was just stabbing everybody
that was in his way.”
Her friend was wounded
in the back, she said, and a
nearby student was stabbed
in the stomach.
The incident began in a
classroom in the school’s science wing when the suspect
pulled out two knives and
started slashing and stabbing fellow students, said
Mark Drear, vice president
of Capital Asset Protection,
which provides security
guards for the school.
Many students were still
at their lockers. The students, some of them wounded, ran from the room with
the suspect chasing them
a few hundred feet down a
hallway. He attacked other
students along the way,
Drear said.
One student who realized
what was happening pulled
a fire alarm to try to evacuate the school. That caused
students who were in other
classrooms to crowd into
the hallway.
According to a police affidavit, Murrysville Police
Officer William “Buzz”
Yakshe, a specially trained
school resource officer
assigned to the district, was
working in his office when
he heard a commotion.
He and his office mate,
private security Sgt. John
Resetar, went to check. The
two separated, with Yakshe
heading toward the cafeteria and the sergeant going
down the hallway against
the flow of stampeding students, according to Drear.
At first, Drear said,
Resetar thought the flow of
bodies was because of the
fire alarm. But then he saw
the blood on the students.
“He knew something was
wrong,” Drear said. “He
saw the gentleman holding
knives. When the gentleman
saw him he lunged at him
... He was stabbed and still
holding the suspect, trying
to get the weapons out of his
hands.”
When Yakshe returned,
the affidavit said, the sergeant was “leaning against
a wall and ... bleeding from
his stomach.”
At that point Assistant
Principal
Sam
King
appeared and tackled the
suspect, authorities said.
King told police that he

heard the commotion, ran
into the hallway and saw
Resetar being stabbed.
Both King and Resetar
grappled with the suspect,
Drear said. A third private
security guard, Officer Ken
Wedge, rushed in from outside and saw the pileup.
“He got into it, got the
assailant into a choke hold
and got him to eventually
drop the weapons. They
were having a hard time getting them out of his hands,”
Drear said.
Resetar was treated for
a stab wound above the rib
cage that did not hit any
vital organs, Drear said. He
was released from the hospital.
“That Sam King, thank
goodness he was there,”
Drear said. “It could have
been a lot worse.”
Cook and fellow school
director George Harding
said the district had done
extensive training on how
to respond to a critical incident. But most of the training focused on an active
shooter, Cook said, not
someone with a knife.
Regardless, the directors
said, the practiced response
protocol appeared to work
effectively as school officials and security subdued
the suspect, evacuated the
school and quickly sought
emergency help for the
wounded.
“This is our worst nightmare but these kind of scenarios we have discussed
them and trained for them
extensively with our staff
and emergency responders,” Cook said.
The fact that a student
pulled the fire alarm. she
added, meant that he followed training recommendations to do so in any
emergency so that students
and staff would know to
evacuate the building.

DailyCollegian.com

Opinion Editorial
THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

“Yes, art is dangerous. Where it is chaste, it is not art.” - Pablo Picasso

Thursday, April 10, 2014

PATRIOT Act
still controversial
With the recent revela- brought up at the dinner
tions regarding a contro- table or on a talk show.
How often do you walk to
versial NSA spy program,
class thinking that the NSA
Patrick Dunbar
or some other extension of
the government is currentthe topic of national secu- ly combing through your
rity and the legality behind recent library rentals or cell
some of these programs, has phone calls? The answer to
never been more relevant. that question for me is zero.
Since the terrorist attacks The fact is: If you’re not placon Sept. 11, the U.S. govern- ing long distance calls to Iraq
ment has taken drastic steps or Somalia, there’s a good
to increase the national secu- chance Big Brother has no
rity infrastructure, in hopes interest in you whatsoever.
I understand that the
of foiling future attacks.
These measures have issue is more about the
included programs like principle behind legislaOperation TIPS, the Domestic tion like the PATRIOT Act;
Security Enhancement Act government intrusion on
and the widely disputed one’s private life is nothing
PATRIOT Act. Programs to take lightly. If you allow
like the PATRIOT Act were the government to take part
passed under the eye of in such activities now, how
politicians such as Attorney much power are we going
General to George W. Bush, to give them in the future?
Personally, I don’t have an
John Ashcroft.
Looking back on the answer for that, and your
implementation of these ACLU-member roommate
programs, Americans find probably can’t answer that
themselves asking whether question either.
For me, it all comes down
or not the sacrifice of prito
the
faith I have in the U.S.
vacy in favor of security has
government
and our sysbeen worth it. Policies such
as the PATRIOT Act have tem of checks and balances.
never aimed to invade the Although all three branchprivacy of everyday U.S. citi- es of the government have
zens. The act gives numerous their own flaws and always

Although all three branches of the
government have their own flaws and
always will, I like to believe that one
branch will trump the other when it
comes to creating some kind of
“Fahrenheit 451” dystopian law.
powers to law enforcement
agencies to follow and investigate those that are believed
to be involved in some kind
of terrorist activity.
One of the most debated
parts of the act was a part of
the law known as the sneakand-peek provision. This
provision gave investigators
the ability search someone’s
home or business or tap their
phone without first gaining
the blessing of a judge and
obviously without the individual’s consent.
I can’t count the number
of times I’ve discussed the
PATRIOT Act with peers on
campus, and on most occasions these individuals talk
as though they are characters in an Orwellian tale.
While the act is constitutionally questionable, and both
sides can deliver multiple
arguments for or against it, I
feel as though it’s something
that not everyone thinks
or worries about until it’s

will, I like to believe that one
branch will trump the other
when it comes to creating
some kind of “Fahrenheit
451” dystopian law.
When it comes down to it,
I’m willing to trade some of
my privacy for greater security. That’s just a sacrifice I
am willing to make. Maybe
that will change in ten years,
or maybe the need for security will increase. Who knows?
On April 16,, the UMass
Republican Club will bring
former Attorney General
John Ashcroft, who had a
major role in the development of the post-9/11 security state, to speak at the
University of Massachusetts
campus. Maybe it will be
here, at this event, that some
of your questions about the
PATRIOT Act and this need
for increased security will be
answered once and for all.
Patrick Dunbar is a member of the
UMass Republican Club. He can be
reached at pdunbar@umass.edu.

Editorial@DailyCollegiancom

to
Letters the edItor

Editorial@DailyCollegian.com

To the Editor, in response to
the Letter to the Editor on
March 31:

are ever reported to the
authorities. The Center for
Women & Community at the
University of Massachusetts
employs a Civilian Advocate
who works to reduce the
barriers survivors face in
filing complaints of sexual
assault. The advocate can
support survivors through
the challenging criminal
process, which can take up
to two years. Unfortunately,
the conviction rate for sexual violence is 50 percent or
less, depending on the jurisdiction. Legislation and law
enforcement alone cannot
stop sexual violence.

We appreciate the thoughtful letter of March 31 and
agree that preventing and
responding to campus sexual violence is a priority.
Sexual violence is a complex
problem. Research shows
that effectively addressing
sexual violence requires a
comprehensive
strategy
that deals with individual
behavior, community standards and a compassionate
response to victims/survivors, and that holds perpetrators accountable.

sive of all members of the
student body, which is con
sistent with the recommendations made by RAINN.
The campaign communicates that recognizing and
stopping sexual violence is
everyone’s responsibility.
The bystander campaign
is not the first effort on
campus to address sexual
violence. The Center for
Women & Community has
been facilitating sexual
assault prevention education for more than 30 years.

Everyone in our community has an important role
to play in preventing and
responding to sexual violence. For more information
about volunteer opportunities visit the CWC website:
www.umass.edu/ewc.

The University has also
implemented a variety of
other approaches, including
a coordinated response to
survivors, training for first
responders and a revised
Student Code of Conduct
and process that allows for
expulsion of a student found
guilty of sexual assault. The

The bystander campaign at
UMass is another component of the multiple efforts
implemented to prevent
and respond to sexual violence. The campus training
on “delegate, distract and
direct” is specifically inclu-

Sexual violence continues to
be the most under-reported
violent crime in the world.
According to the National
Research Council, less than
20 percent of sexual assaults

University has demonstrated its commitment to a comprehensive strategy that
includes teaching prevention, effecting policy change,
supporting survivors and
using both the campus conduct and the criminal justice process to hold perpetrators accountable.

Letters to the editor should be no longer than 550 words and can be submitted to either
to Editorial@DailyCollegian.com or to DailyCollegian.com. We regret that, due to space
constraints, not all letters will be printed but can be found online.

Here comes the taxman
For those students who bother many people, because
work, tax time often means a it is widely agreed upon that
taxes are necessary and
Jason Roche
beneficial, although there
is much bickering about the
spending spree fueled by tax specifics.
refunds. After a year of lookIf you were to consider a
ing at paychecks whittled single dollar that you paid
down by taxes, it feels good in taxes, here is how the govto get a check for a few hun- ernment would allocate it:
dred dollars. Too often, rou- 42.2 cents would go toward
tine actions – such as paying the military, 22.1 cents to
taxes – become so embed- Social Security, 10.2 cents to
ded in daily functioning that interest, 8.7 cents to safetythey go without question. So ned programs, 4.4 cents to
let us consider the concept education, 3.9 cents to govof taxes.
ernment and law enforceThe merit of taxes is ment, 3.3 cents to housing
widely accepted: After all,
the government has to pay
for schools, roads and bombs
... lots of bombs. Since most
people accept the principle
behind taxes, they are compliant in paying them. Of
course, if you refuse to pay
your taxes, the Internal
Revenue Service may seize development and less than
all of your property and, three cents each to science
if you blatantly cheat or programs, commerce/transdefraud the government, portation and international
affairs.
even throw you in jail.
Gallup polls have shown
Benjamin Franklin once
wrote, “(In) this world that Americans believe the
nothing can be said to be federal government wastes
certain, except death and over half of every tax dollar.
taxes.” Taxes are a univer- While this is probably a bit
sal trend and there are very of an exaggeration, a signififew places you can go with- cant amount of tax revenue
out being subjected to one is wasted every year or is
tax or another. In the United spent on seemingly frivoStates, income taxes are lous enterprises. Each year,
deducted directly from pay, the government spends over
sales and excise taxes are $100 billion on payments that
charged when making pur- never should be made.
While this money is
chases, and property taxes
are levied on the items that wasted outright, billions
you already own. If you were more are spent on governto buy a car, taxes would ment programs that are as
first be taken from your pay- close to useless as can be
check, you would then have imagined. Some examples
to pay a tax when purchasing provided by Doug Bandow
the vehicle (and also when in Forbes magazine include
buying insurance and gaso- $30 million that was spent
line), then every year you to increase mango producwould be charged a tax for tion and sales in Pakistan
owning the car. This does not (which failed abysmally) and

$765,828 that was devoted to
bringing an International
House of Pancakes franchise
to Washington, D.C.
Perhaps you are somebody who does not support
wasteful spending or who
does not want to fund military weaponry that will be
used to kill people on the
other side of the world. You
want all of your tax dollars to go toward education
and healthcare for those in
need. Well, there is a theory
called conscientious objection, which argues that people should not be forced to

We should be more vigilant of how our tax
dollars are spent and demand changes when
investments are being tilted away from our
preferences.

agents might come to your
house, arrest you and strip
you of everything you own.
However, this comparison
casts the government in an
unfair light; taxes are, of
course, incorruptibly benevolent.
There are some individuals that can get around paying taxes. These are mostly
corporations. As highlighted
in an article in USA Today,
there are many large companies that manage to reach a
zero tax rate. These companies manage to avoid taxes
by taking advantage of loopholes in laws. This is a benefit that comes to corporations that spend millions of
dollars every year lobbying
legislators so that these loopholes remain open. Average
Americans who cannot
afford their own congressional representative will have
to continue paying taxes,
and some of that tax money
will go to subsidize the very
corporations that are buying
out their representatives.
Taxes are not inherently bad; they are needed for
public ventures such as education, transportation and
national defense. However,
taxes are not optional and
the money is often wasted
or spent on undertakings
that may be objected to by
the taxpayer. As a citizenry,
we should be more vigilant
of how our tax dollars are
spent and demand changes
when investments are being
tilted away from our preferences. Just because taxes are
a routine part of life does
not mean that we should
allow corruption and waste
to become routine as well.

pay military taxation, and
some people follow this by
simply refusing to pay taxes.
However,
conscientious
objection is not officially recognized and most tax resisters are able to avoid paying
taxes only by living below
the required income level to
be taxed or by going completely off the grid.
When the average person
refuses to pay taxes, they
receive a visit from the IRS,
who may deem it necessary
to place a lien on their property. The government collecting taxes could almost
be compared to the mafia
collecting protection money.
The mafia may approach
a shop owner and ask that
they pay a fee for protection; if the shop owner refuses to pay, the mafia might
come back and damage the
shop. With taxes, the government demands that you Jason Roche is a Collegian columnist
pay an array of fees; if you and can be reached jwroche@umass.
refuse for long enough, edu.

The Massachusetts Daily Collegian is published Monday through Thursday during the University of Massachusetts calendar semester. The Collegian is independently funded, operating on advertising revenue. Founded in 1890, the paper began as Aggie Life,
became the College Signal in 1901, the Weekly Collegian in 1914 and the Tri–Weekly Collegian in 1956. Published daily from 1967 to 2013, The Collegian has been broadsheet since January 1994. For advertising rates and information, call 413-545-3500.

Generally speaking, I am
not a big fan of lagers. My
taste palate tends to lean
more toward the bitter side
of the brewing divide, and
I find that most lagers fall
too far on the bland side for
my personal enjoyment. I
certainly won’t say no to a
lager every now and then,
but typically it is not my
first choice of brewing style
by any means.
However, being the selfindulgent drinker that I
am, sometimes I’m willing
to forgo my usual regimen
of IPAs and imperial stouts
in favor of experimentation.
Even if I end up repulsed
by whatever strange brew I
delve into, at the end of it all
beer is still beer and there
are little complaints to be
made.
The subject of this
week’s
column,
Port
Brewing Company’s Hot
Rocks Lager, is not a beer
I personally chose to write
about. Instead, it was gifted
to me by one of my housemates as a means of repaying me for a recent beer run
for the communal fridge.
Rather than repay me with
the token Rolling Rock that
functions much like currency in our house, he decided
to surprise me with a bomber of craft beer (or, what he
later informed me, he merely guessed was craft beer
since he is admittedly not as
well versed as yours truly).
Not being one to look a gift
horse in the mouth (or more
appropriately, a beer horse),
I gladly accepted. Given that
I was a little stuck for what
to write about this week,

the circumstances perfectly
aligned.
Much to my delight, Hot
Rocks Lager has more going
for it than just a catchy
name. Port Brewing is a subsidiary of the Lost Abbey
Brewing Company, which
specializes in Belgian-style
brewing as well as barrelaged beers. A few of their
popular selections include
the Agave Maria Ale aged
in Anejo tequila barrels and
the Red Barn Farmhouse
Ale.
Port Brewing Company is
co-located with Lost Abbey
in San Marcos, Calif. in
the former brewhouse of
Stone Brewing Company.
Co-founder and Director of
Brewery Operations Tomme
Arthur was once head
brewer at the Pizza Port
Brewpub, owned by siblings
Gina and Vince Marsaglia,
both of whom are also cofounders of Port Brewing.
According to the Lost
Abbey website, although
Port Brewing grew from the
enterprises of Pizza Port’s
brewing endeavors, it is “a
completely separate company with its own brewers,
employees and direction.”
Port Brewing has carved
a niche in the beach-themed
beer market with their
tropical-themed packaging
and summer-y titles like
Wipeout West Coast IPA
and Shark Attack Double
Red Ale. Even Hot Rocks
Lager comes equipped with
a caricature of a Hawaiian
luau complete with dancing
Tiki idols and the menacing
shadow of a volcano in the
background. Though “Hot
Rocks” does sound marginally suggestive, the name
derives from an antiquated
brewing practice that is,
actually, quite literal.
Hot Rocks is brewed in
the tradition of German

“steinbier,” translated literally as “stone beer.” The
name is rooted in the practice of dropping heated
stones into a brewing kettle
to force a boil of the wort
(the mixture of malt sugars
to be fermented by brewing
yeast to produce alcohol).
The addition of hot rocks
causes the sugar to caramelize and assume a smokier flavor that is difficult to
achieve with a normal boiling process. Though Port
Brewing surely has access
to more modern brewing
equipment than was available in ancient Germany,
their adherence to tradition
exemplifies a dedication to
brewing that honors both
the contemporary and the
ancestral.
After some research, I
was fully on board with Hot
Rocks, despite its lager status. However, according to
BeerAdvocate, Hot Rocks is
billed as a European Dark
Lager, a style that relies
more heavily on the sweeter
flavors of malt than the bitterness of hops. Though I
am a sucker for some hefty
bitterness, I was willing to
reconcile my taste proclivities for the sake of inquiry.
Hot Rocks pours out a
deep amber-brown with distinct cloudiness and traces of sediment that settle
toward the bottom of the
glass. The head, a creamy
half-inch of sand-colored
foam, settles slowly to thinner ropes of lacing as it
releases the pungent aroma
of caramel. Waves of toffee and smoky malt weave
their way into the nostrils
with hints of bready sweetness reminiscent of some
lighter Belgian-style fare.
Surprisingly enough, this
beer has a distinctly hearty
mouth-feel, fleshed out no
doubt by the lack of car-

bonation that makes for a
thicker drinking sensation.
Beneath some initial wateriness come notes of dark
fruits and spice mellowed
out with a honey-like sweetness from the caramelized
malt. There is almost no
discernible hop presence in
this beer, but the complexity
of flavor in the malt more
than makes up for it.
A certain tartness accompanies the dry finish of this
beer, relegating an aftertaste of earthy fruit and
lingering bread that causes
visions of sweeter barleywines and fruit lambics to
spring to mind. The impressiveness of this beer lies in
the melding of sweet and
subtle, accessing a multitude of flavors without sacrificing the simplicity of the
beer’s style. As someone
who goes ga-ga for bitterness, this beer was surprisingly enjoyable even given
its low rank on the bitter
spectrum. All in all, Hot
Rocks is by no means my
new favorite, but it is certainly the best lager I have
sampled in recent memory.
Given the nature of its
origin, I recommend Hot
Rocks as an excellent accompaniment to pizza, as the
sweetness in the malt lends
itself well to the inherent
sweetness of tomato sauce.
This nifty little lager would
surely pair well with items
from the grill as well. Since
the weather is (almost) perfect for barbecuing weather,
the food pairing is contextually appropriate. And since
this beer is relatively light
in terms of alcohol (6.5 percent), there is no shame in
enjoying some Hot Rocks of
its own accord, preferably
from the comfort of a lawn
chair on a warm afternoon.
Cliches aside, if you want to
expand your crafty horizons

JUSTIN SURGENT/COLLEGIAN

Located in San Marcos, Calif., the Port Brewing Company has carved a niche in
the beer market with their cache of beach-themed and European-inspired beers.
but you shy away from the
intensity of hops, Hot Rocks
is a perfect excursion into
craft brewing that is neither
too contextually bizarre nor
intimidating in terms of flavor. And if you suffer from
an inherent sweet tooth, this
is definitely the beer for you.
So for you lager-drinkers
who’ve grown weary of the
parade of similar-looking
American lagers and pil-

sners swarming the shelves,
reach for some Hot Rocks
and start your spring drinking season with much-needed sweetness. Even if you
don’t particularly care for
the beer, in light of upcoming dates this month, it is
certainly a good segue into
“getting stoned” jokes.
Emily A. Brightman can be reached at
ebrightman@umass.edu.

DuBois library, the sub-par taste of the coffee
almost makes it worth it to walk to a different cafe. The regular dark roast was almost
undrinkable because it was so burnt. It’s true
that a good, strong cup of coffee can be bitBy AdriA KElly-SullEngEr
ter sometimes, but Procrastination Station’s
Collegian Staff
dark roast went overboard in this regard. I
Whether it’s an essential part of your daily don’t know if they are just using water that’s
grind or just an extra boost for late night too hot for the beans or if there’s something
cramming, coffee might simultaneously be wrong with their machine, but either way
the best and worst thing that’s happened to the coffee was so scorched I almost asked
most students in college. The caffeine is awe- for a refund. On top of less-than-desirable
some because you can use it to wake up for coffee, the service was brusque and slow.
early morning classes or stay up late to finish Procrastination Station is definitely conveprocrastinated homework, but the downside nient, but taste-wise, your money is likely
is trying to find a cup that tastes as delicious better spent elsewhere.
as you want it to, especially on campus.
ISB Cafe
With so many options for where to grab
a cup of joe on campus, the decision can be
The next stop was the ISB Cafe, which
overwhelming. I set out to find the best and serves Starbucks beans to an eager crowd
worst that UMass has to offer, and I was sur- with a customer line that often winds around
prised to find that there are 15 cafes easily the room. The service here was much more
accessible to the students here. Since there pleasant than in the library, and the staff
are so many, I’ve chosen just a few to focus worked through the line as quickly as poson, which will hopefully aid you in future sible. Despite the improvement in customer
service, this coffee was a disappointment as
coffee-seeking quests.
well. It wasn’t as burnt, or as bitter, but it was
Procrastination Station
oddly sour. I don’t know what other people
Out of all the coffee I tried, the roast at the look for in a good cup of joe, but for me, sour
Procrastination Station was the bottom of is definitely not something I want. I attemptthe list. While it’s conveniently located in the ed to mask the taste with cream and sugar

with no luck. So it ended up being another
disappointing stop, and with the quest for
good coffee in mind, I headed to Southwest.

Hampshire Cafe
I went to the other cafe that served
Starbucks on campus, Hampshire Cafe,
underneath Hampshire Dining Commons.
Both the service and the coffee at this location were far superior to the others, to my
pleasant surprise. The coffee was pleasingly
not burnt and the service was great – a nice
break from my previous two experiences
with campus coffee. However, despite the
good coffee and amiable service, Hampshire
was still lacking some key element of my coffee experience, so I continued on.

French Meadow Cafe

People’s Market
The best coffee I found on campus handsdown goes to People’s Market. It’s a wonderful, fun atmosphere where they have great
music pumping all day. They have a welcoming staff and an array of interesting foods
to try with your java. The service was fast
and, best of all, the coffee was delicious. It
was smooth but strong, with no lingering
or bitter aftertaste. There was much more
available then just sugar and cream to add to
the cup, like honey, agave nectar, cinnamon
and other flavorings. I give People’s Market
a 10 out of 10, and it’s the same price as (if
not cheaper than) other places on campus. I
would highly suggest it to any coffee lover at
UMass; I know I will be going back soon.
The extensive selection of coffee servers
on campus can be overwhelming, even to the
less-obsessed coffee drinker, but this brief
rundown of my personal favorites ought to
give you a good road map to start with. My
preferred cup of java may not be everyone’s,
but that’s all the more reason to explore the
UMass coffee options for yourself. If nothing
else, at least your caffeine level will be at
maximum in time for finals.

French Meadow cafe in the Campus
Center ends up in second place. They had
wonderful service and an interesting selection of roasts, a needed break from the
monotony of other campus coffee servers.
The service was fast and friendly and I happily drank the whole cup, glad to finally have
a buttery and smooth coffee in hand. There
was also an array of food and drink choices
for those not interested in just a cup of coffee,
although the roasts available here were com- Adria Kelly-Sullenger can be reached at akellysu@umass.
mendable on their own.
edu.

You’ll win solitaire if you play your cards right. Wearing all yellow is a sure way to attract
bees. Wearing a thick layer of honey is the
only way to ensure they’ll be bumble bears.

pisces

Feb. 19 - Mar. 20

virgo

aug. 23 - Sept. 22

Whenever you wear UMass apparel, make
A dog birthday party is not a good excuse for
sure to wear something from your high school a party. That doggie flippin’ deserves a
so you keep your roots grounded.
celebration.

aries

Mar. 21 - apr. 19

Wearing shorts under shorts offers support,
but wearing that third layer lets them do all
the work for you.

libra

Sept. 23 - Oct. 22

scorpio

Oct. 23 - nOv. 21

Frozen mayonnaise cups make an excellent
popsicle, refreshing and cool for any spring
barbecue.

taurus

apr. 20 - May. 20

90 percent of the catchy and memorable
parts of your favorite songs are elongated
vowel sounds.

People on the mechanical stair machine have
a really strange variety of ways to walk up
stairs.

gemini

May. 21 - Jun. 21

sagittarius

nOv. 22 - Dec. 21

Pizza is not your friend. The live yeast friends
were killed when you put them in that 400
degree oven.

I know you just got a facial, but your face is
burning from your sweat because you’re
allergic to exercise.

cancer

capricorn

Jun. 22 - Jul. 22

Maybe eating a pound of espresso beans is
more effective than drinking a cup of coffee,
but at what cost?

Dec. 22 - Jan. 19

Your happiness level and overall well being
would vastly improve if you accepted that all
the time is a good time for jack o’lanterns.

After the Massachusetts
baseball team stole, sacrificed, and hit-and-ran their
way to a victory Wednesday
afternoon, there was a sense
of satisfaction postgame that
had deserted the Minutemen
during their trying first half
of the season.
“It’s about time,” said
UMass coach Mike Stone. “It
was that kind of afternoon.”
The Minutemen (5-19)
finally got back to their
trademark “small ball”
style, benefiting from seven
sharp innings from Andrew
Grant on their way to beating Northeastern 5-3 in the
Beanpot semifinal.
The
win
puts
the
Minutemen into the Beanpot
Championship game on
April 21 at Northeastern for
the third consecutive year.
Grant allowed three runs
and picked up his first win
of the season. He struck out
nine batters, with most coming courtesy of a devastating
breaking ball that baffled hitters all afternoon.
After walking the first
two batters of the game,
Grant settled in. Along with
his breaking ball, Grant
mixed in an effective fastball
and a deceptive changeup to
change hitters’ eye levels,
and keep the Huskies off balance throughout the game.
“He’s got great stuff,
89-93 (miles per hour), and
when you throw that, plus
a changeup, and command
your breaking ball, it’s going
to give you a chance to win,”
said Stone.
While Grant provided

CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN

Andrew Grant limited Northeastern to three runs in seven innings on Wednesday.
one half of the UMass victory, it was timely hitting
and execution on offense
that did the rest. After falling
behind 1-0 in the first inning,
the Minutemen answered
in the second after Dylan
Begin doubled, Brandon
Walsh advanced him to third
on a groundout, and John
Jennings tied the game with
a sacrifice fly.
In the third inning, UMass
used small ball to take the
lead after Kyle Adie (2-3, two
runs, stolen base) singled
and advanced to third base
on a successful hit and run
by Nick Sanford. On the
next pitch, Sanford took off
for second, drawing a throw
by the catcher which allowed
Adie to sprint home.
After missing all of last
year and starting this season
slow, Adie has started to heat
up according to Stone.
“He’s having good at bats

and seeing more pitches,”
Stone said. “He runs, too.
That brings a dimension to
us that we don’t get with
some other guys.”
In the sixth inning, it was
still more small ball for the
Minutemen as they scored
three times with runs coming off an error, fielder’s
choice, and sacrifice fly.
“We executed the way we
should,” Stone said. “When
you do that, you get a chance
to score runs and a much
better chance to win the
game.”
Northeastern (13-17) was
haunted by a squandered
opportunity in the first
moments of the game. After
the two straight walks to start
the day, the Huskies seemed
ready to strike. A groundout
advanced the runners to second and third with only one
out, and after Nick Fanneron
flared a single into left field,

Northeastern seemed poised
to take a 2-0 lead.
But Kellen Pagel’s throw
from left field hit his relay
man, Nik Campero on the
letters, and he fired home to
cut down what would have
been the second run for the
Huskies.
It was the first of two outs
that Northeastern made at
the plate on the day, which
represented the difference in
the game.
After falling behind 5-1,
the Huskies rallied for two
runs in the seventh, but
Tommy McDonald pitched
two scoreless innings to pick
up the save for UMass.
The Minutemen return
to action this weekend when
they host Saint Louis for a
three-game series starting
Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.
Ross Gienieczko can be reached at
rgieniec@umass.edu and followed on
Twitter @RossGien.

After 10 innings of play,
the Massachusetts softball
team fell to Boston College,
4-3, in Chestnut Hill on
Wednesday.
Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the tenth inning,
Eagles freshman Jordan
Weed connected on a single through the middle of
the infield with the bases
loaded to score two runs to
end the game.
Despite ending their five
game winning streak, the
Minutewomen (8-15, 2-2
A10) played well in the eyes
of Coach Kristi Stefanoni.
“We had bright spots in
the game that we picked
out … the bulk of our lineup did its job today,” said
Stefanoni.
In particular, Stefanoni
said she was proud of how
pitcher Caroline Raymond
was able to limit the Eagles
(19-16, 4-8 ACC) to only
three hits in 9.2 innings.
“Caroline came out with
a really strong performance today on the mound
for us,” Stefanoni said. “It
stinks to think that the last
hit at the end of the game
was the game-winner, but
just because she gave up
the last hit, I don’t think
she had a bad game.”
Despite only recording
one strikeout, Raymond
was able to battle with each
batter making it difficult
for them to get on base,
according to Stefanoni.
“When Caroline was
behind in the count, she
was able to work her way
back in it,” Stefanoni said.
“If I had to pick a bright Matthew Zackman can be reached at
spot in that game, I would mzackman@umass.edu.

Going out on the road can be a
hassle for teams. But it can also be a
really fun experience too.
Angela McMahon, coach of the
No. 10 Massachusetts women’s
lacrosse team, said the team is looking forward to its first away game in
almost a month, when it travels to
the nation’s capital on Friday to take
on George Washington at 4 p.m.
“It’s actually really exciting and
the girls have a great time on the
road,” she said. “To just be able to
sort of relax, hang out in the hotel,
spend time together, not that they
don’t spend time together as it is, but
without a lot of distractions and just
being with a really solely focus on
the game for a solid day and a half
or so.”
After facing the Colonials (5-6,
1-1 Atlantic 10), the Minutewomen
(11-1, 2-0 A-10) will return home on
Sunday to host George Mason (7-4,

1-1 A-10) at 1 p.m.
“It’s going to be a long weekend
because of the traveling, and then
coming right back for a home game
Sunday, but I think we’ll be fine,”
senior attacker Katie Ferris said.
George Washington comes into
Friday’s matchup having snapped
a three-game losing streak with an
18-10 victory over St. Bonaventure
last Sunday.
The team ranks third in the
conference in goals scored per
game (12.36) and is led by Jamie
Bumgardner, who leads the conference and ranks 10th in the nation in
points per game (4.73).
McMahon said Bumgardner is
someone UMass is going to have to
watch out for.
“She’s really had a good season
and has stepped up huge for them,”
she said. “So, we’re going to have to
really try to limit her a bit.”
The Patriots enter the weekend coming off a tough 21-13 loss

to Duquesne last Sunday. They will
face Richmond on Friday before
traveling to Amherst to take on the
Minutewomen.
George Mason is led offensively
by Rachel Obregon who is fourth
in the conference in goals per game
(2.55).
While UMass has played the
Colonials every year in conference
play since 2002, the Patriots are
a new face in the A-10 who bring
an element of the unknown to the
matchup.
“Facing an opponent that you’ve
never played before, you go in not
knowing anything,” Ferris said. “So,
you can’t go in and assume you’re
going to win and you can’t go in and
assume you’re going to lose because
you really don’t know what’s going
to be thrown at you, so you have to
be ready for anything.”
Sunday’s game will also be the
Minutewomen’s Senior Day game.
The team will honor its seven seniors

Massachusetts men’s lacrosse
coach Greg Cannella can be sure of
one thing when he looks ahead to
Saturday’s matchup with Drexel – a
fast game.
Cannella expects a fast-paced
duel between the Dragons (7-4, 2-1
Colonial Athletic Association) and
his own speedy team. UMass (7-3, 1-1
CAA) is looking to pick up the pace
after a 6-5 home loss to Towson, who
successfully slowed down the game
to suit its style of play on Saturday
at 4 p.m. at Drexel.
Drexel (11.6 goals per game) won
last year’s series meeting with the
Minutemen, 15-14, in a game reminiscent of a shootout. Midfielder
Ben McIntosh and attack Nick
Trizano, both seniors with 42 and 35
points respectively, return to give the
Dragons’ offense teeth.
“They’re loaded with talent,”

Cannella said. “The group on offense
in general plays really well together.
They’re all unselfish, they share (the
ball) and they shoot it well.”
Cannella called McIntosh, the
CAA Co-Player of the Week, one of
the best players in the country and
a likely candidate for the conference
player of the year.
The hype surrounding McIntosh
is something that Ryan Izzo, a midfielder for the Minutemen, welcomes. McIntosh and other midfielders are the redshirt junior’s upcoming assignment.
“This week, I personally want to
own my matchup,” Izzo said.
He noted his teammates’ disappointment after a close loss to
Towson and said they are hungry to
convert desire into results. He added
that playing on the road doesn’t
affect the game plan.
Senior Connor Mooney also talked up the importance of treating

opponents equally, but said the game
would be a valuable conference win.
The attack/midfielder had a hat
trick and an assist last year against
Drexel. He said capitalizing on space
in the zone led to a lot of quality outside chances last year. Mooney also
cited feeds from recent graduate Will
Manny as helpful in that win.
“Both teams were able to put
the ball in the goal and it really
came down to the last possession,”
Mooney said. “We were trading goals
and they beat us out in the end.”
He feels fortunes could be different this time for UMass if goaltender Zach Oliveri and the defense
carry over their success from last
week and the offense finds a rhythm.
Oliveri made 13 saves, including
unlikely athletic stops that kept the
game in reach on at least four separate occasions.
Grant Whiteway, a junior attack,
pointed out that his team was 0-for-14

continued from page 10

in the fourth quarter of the Towson
game. He said that missed opportunities like that would lead to a loss
against Drexel. Whiteway had five
goals against the Dragons last year
and set a career-high this season
with a seven-goal performance on
March 11.
Finishing the ball is his main focus
for the upcoming game after scoring
once on three attempts against the
Tigers. But it’s something he said
has to be constant through the rest
of the schedule, particularly with
the looming CAA Tournament.
“I think everyone knows that
there’s still a lot of lacrosse to be
played,” Whiteway said. “We’re a
scrappy league and all the games are
always close. That’s why it’s fun to
play in this conference; it’s competitive and every game matters.”
Peter Cappiello can be reached at pcappiel@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @
petecapps.

Mark Chiarelli can be reached at mchiarel@
umass.edu and followed on Twitter @Mark_
Chiarelli.

Jesse Mayfield-Sheehan can be reached at
jmayfiel@umass.edu and can be followed on
Twitter at @jgms88.

Minutemen hope to increase tempo vs. Drexel
Collegian Staff

ROLE MODEL
Gordon said. “They’re killing
themselves and not playing sports
because they feel they can’t be
accepted. I was going to stop playing sports, I wasn’t even going to
play this season. That just goes
to show that this is a big deal and
nobody should ever feel that way.”
Wade Davis understands the
responsibility Gordon’s taken on.
Davis is a former NFL player and
the executive director of “You
Can Play,” a project “dedicated
to ensuring equality, respect and
safety for all athletes, without
regard to sexual orientation.”
Davis spoke to the Collegian on
Wednesday while speaking at
“Coming out to Play,” a panelist presentation put on by the
Association of Diversity in Sport
at UMass.
“Derrick was like, ‘look, I’m
exhausted of not being who I am
so I’m going to invite the rest of
the world in so I can go out there
and live my life,’” Davis said.
Davis, who is also gay, was with
Gordon when he shared his sexual orientation with his teammates
and was a part of a group of individuals which Gordon referred to
as his “support staff” throughout
the process. Gordon noted that
without Davis and his support
staff, he couldn’t do what he was
doing.
Now, the goal is to spread Gordon’s
story.
“Because he’s young, there’s a
different relatability there,” Davis
said. “I have to listen to people
like Derrick Gordon or go to high
schools to really find out what’s
happening. I’m 36, my experience
is a little different from the experience of Derrick. His story is
much more relevant and relatable.”
For Gordon, the opportunity
to make an impact stretches far
beyond points and steals, wins
and losses. He’s made his story
public and now he wants to make
an impact.
“I’m ready to change lives and
save lives,” he said.

with a ceremony after the game.
Coach McMahon, who came to
UMass three years ago, said this ceremony is particularly special, as this
group was the first class that she got
to see grow from young and immature freshmen into seniors ready to
go out into the world.
“It’s really exciting, honestly,
because I’ve had the opportunity to
see them grow and mature, not only
as players, but as people.”
As one of the team’s seniors,
Ferris said she is looking forward to
being honored on Sunday.
“I can’t believe four years has
gone by this quick. You know, it feels
like I just played my first game yesterday,” she said. “But we’re all definitely looking forward to it, I know I
am. It’s been an awesome four years
here.”

M E N ’ S L AC RO S S E

By PeteR caPPiello

have picked the better
demeanor in her presence
in how she carried herself
on the mound today.”
O f f e n s i v e l y ,
Massachusetts
tallied
seven hits, highlighted by
a Bridget Lemire home run
in the 6th inning, which
put the Minutewomen up
2-0.
“Her homerun proved to
be the way that we went
into extra innings,” said
Stefanoni.
Freshman Jena Cozza
also led UMass’s offense,
going 2-3. Lindsey Webster
also added two hits and
drove in two runs as well.
However, errors plagued
Massachusetts throughout
the game as the Eagles
were able to force extra
innings due to an error
in the bottom of the 6th
inning.
Stefanoni
was
not
pleased about the four
errors that her team committed for the day and said
that she was surprised that
the mistakes took place.
She emphasized that over
the last five games, the
team only committed one
error.
“Our defense got pretty
bad around the 5th and
6th inning, right when we
needed things to go well
for us,” Stefanoni said. “I
would have liked that to be
a little bit stronger. I know
that we are a lot better
than that defensively.”
The
Minutewomen
will next take on St.
Bonaventure on Friday in
New York.

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

DailyCollegian.com

BROTHERHOOD

activities,” Bergantino said.
“He kind of liked to stay in
his room and play Call of
Duty. He was really known
for staying in his room and
doing him.”
The team noticed when
Gordon seemed down and
like all family members do,
they tried to pick him up.
It can say a lot about a
team when it’s faced with
a scenario that is new to it.
The timing of the announce-

9

continued from page 10

“It’s going to make us much closer and I
think we’re going to have a much better
season than last year.”
Derrick Gordon
UMass guard

Thurday, April 10, 2014

ment came at the perfect
time for UMass, as it has an
entire offseason to deal with
the rush of media attention
surrounding Gordon’s decision before even dealing with
games.
But it’s also a situation
that can bring this team closer and in the long run, better.
“It’s going to make us
much closer and I think
we’re going to have a much
better season than last year,”

Gordon said.
Gordon’s decision to
come out as gay was easily
the hardest thing he’s had to
endure in his entire 22-year
life. He knew the reactions
that he would get from the
public.
The last thing he wanted
was for his teammates to
turn against him.
But in a true sign of
brotherhood, his teammates
showed him the support that
he so desperately needed.
They responded like a
real family should.
Patrick Strohecker can be reached at
pstrohec@umass.edu and followed
on Twitter @P_Strohecker.

UMass Ad-2-24-14.indd 1

2/24/14 3:28 PM

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

Thurday, April 10, 2014

Sports@DailyCollegian.com

@MDC_SPORTS

‘I’m ready to change lives’

Support
for Gordon
exemplifies
‘brotherhood’

C

CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN

Derrick Gordon is the first openly gay Division I men’s college basketball player after publicly coming out on Wednesday.

Gordon embracing chance to be a role model
By Mark Chiarelli
Collegian Staff

Shortly after Massachusetts
men’s basketball player Derrick
Gordon publicly shared he’s gay,
teammate, former roommate and
close friend Tyler Bergantino
received a text message from a
friend from high school.
The friend – who played high
school basketball with Bergantino
– reacted in immediate support
of Gordon, who became the first
male Division I college basketball
player to openly announce he’s
gay.
“Actually, I got a text from one
of my high school teammates saying ‘woah, he’s gay? That kind of
makes me want to pull for him
even more now,’” Bergantino said.
Gordon’s announcement was
met with a significant wave of
support via social media outlets
such as Twitter and Facebook.
The announcement, which initially broke on ESPN.com and
Outsports.com, was a courageous
move in a college sport yet to have
a player openly come out.
Bergantino noted that Gordon
had entered “uncharted waters.”
But according to Bergantino, if

“I just thought, ‘there’s no way I could be gay, there’s
no possible way.’ As time went on, you just have to
come to grips with it. That’s just who you are.”
Derrick Gordon,
UMass guard
someone was prepared to for this,
it was Gordon.
“He’s a confident guy, a very
confident guy,” Bergantino said. “I
don’t think this will phase him at
all … I think he’s confident enough
and he’s comfortable with himself
enough to know that there’s nothing wrong with being himself. I
think he’s the one guy that can
pull this off flawlessly.”
There was a time for Gordon
where that confidence wasn’t on
full display. For almost four years,
Gordon kept his sexuality a complete secret. At UMass, he strayed
from his teammates and spent
a lot of time alone. There were
nights he cried himself to sleep
and as he continued to struggle, he
continued to isolate.
But Gordon returned to his room
after the Minutemen returned
from the NCAA Tournament and
pondered his future. He didn’t
want to go through another sum-

mer or another year with this
much on his mind.
“I did some thinking,” he said.
“I’m about to go through another
summer. At that point last summer, that’s when my teammates
kind of found out. I didn’t want to
have to go through that hiding and
sneaking around all of that.”
For Gordon, there was a sense
that the time was now.
“I tried to deny (my sexuality)
a lot just because of my family
background and where I grew up,”
he said. “I just thought, ‘there’s no
way I could be gay, there’s no possible way.’ As time went on, you
just have to come to grips with it.
That’s just who you are.”
Despite being the first male
Division I college basketball
player to come out, Gordon isn’t
the first notable athlete to come
out as gay. Professional basketball player Jason Collins came out
as gay over a year ago. Current

WNBA star Brittney Griner also
publicly announced she’s a lesbian. Just a few months ago, former Missouri defensive end and
National Football League hopeful
Michael Sam also announced he
was gay in anticipation of the NFL
Draft.
Gordon spoke to both Collins
and Sam recently and both conveyed that there’s a shared sense
of responsibility to be a role model
moving forward.
“Both of them said, ‘listen, it
comes with a lot of responsibility. Just like us, you’re about to
be a big gay icon for a lot of
people,’” Gordon said. “It’s a lot
of responsibility which I’m able to
deal with.”
The opportunity to offer inspiration to children or other athletes in similar situations resonates with Gordon. There was
a time before the 2013-14 season
when Gordon contemplated quitting basketball altogether. He’s
aware of the torment of keeping
his emotions within and hopes he
can help others in the future.
“I do feel sorry for the kids
that are going through this,”
see

ROLE MODEL on page 8

oming out as gay isn’t an
easy thing for the average
person to do.
Now imagine being one of the
standout players on a college basketball team, playing in a sport
that is dominated by heterosexual
males who are constantly trying
to strut their tough guy persona
and then coming
out as gay.
It’s not an easy
task, but it’s one
that Massachusetts
men’s basketball
sophomore Derrick
Gordon recently
went through,
Patrick
revealing to his
Strohecker teammates that he
is gay. It would’ve
been easy for some
of the members to laugh it off as
a joke, or to uneasily shift in their
chairs at the thought of a gay
player being on their team. After
all, these guys spend most of their
lives in intimate settings during
the season.
They could’ve turned their
backs on one of their own teammates because that’s how society
taught us to handle these types of
situations. But this team didn’t.
Instead, they embraced Gordon
– and his lifestyle – supporting
him for opening up to them.
Gordon showed a level of trust in
his teammates to handle the news
positively and they didn’t let him
down.
All season long, UMass went
by the mantra of “brotherhood,”
that the team was one big family.
A major reason why this team
was so successful this past season on the court was because it
shared such a strong bond off of
it.
You could see the “brotherhood” in full effect sporadically throughout the season
when sophomore center Tyler
Bergantino made videos that
showed that even while enjoying
great success, or enduring tough
times, this team knew how to have
fun and get along.
But something was off about
Gordon and his personality. Sure,
he would put a mask on and act
like he was having the time of his
life in the videos, but deep down
he had a bigger secret that was
forcing him to lie to himself and
his teammates.
As a gay athlete, he was in the
wrong environment. He couldn’t
talk about relationships with girls
because he didn’t have the same
experience as the other players.
Most of the time, he would just
retreat to his room and keep to
himself.
“He wasn’t one to go out and do
see